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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Sona Petroleum makes successful debut on Bursa Malaysia

KUCHING: Sona Petroleum Bhd (Sona Petroleum) listed successfully on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd (Bursa Securities) and officially commenced trading under the stock short name SONA and stock code 5241 at the opening of trading at 9am yesterday morning at an opening price of RM0.41 with a trading volume of 16.8 million.Its free detachable warrants (warrants) also began trading under the stock short name SONA-WA and stock code 5241WA at an opening price of RM0.24 with a trading volume of 31.4 million.As at 4.50pm yesterday, Sona Petroleum saw its shares increase slightly by 0.2 sen to 44.5 sen with its highest trade being at 45 sen earlier yesterday. Its warrant, however, saw a robust jump of 18.5 sen to 26 sen.“The demand for Sona Petroleum’s shares has been overwhelming and we are pleased to have a good mix of local and international institutional investors.“This is the first special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in Malaysia with a cornerstone and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) tranche offered as part of the Institutional Offering. We would like to thank our investors for their confidence in the management of Sona Petroleum.“Our team is committed to growing the company and we seek to continuously increase the value for our shareholders through our upcoming venture in the exploration and production (E&P) phase of the oil and gas value chain.“As a listed entity, we are now responsible towards our shareholders and we seek to ensure good corporate governance,” Sona Petroleum’s independent non-executive chairman, Andreas Johannes Raymundus van Strijp said at the listing ceremony.The retail tranche of Sona Petroleum’s initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed by approximately 4.97 times and had generated a demand of RM421.0 million.Overall, the company has successfully raised a total of RM550 million in the Retail and Institutional Offering through the public issue of 1.1 billion new ordinary shares of RM0.01 each, together with warrants on the basis of one warrant to every one public issue Share, at an issue price of RM0.50 per public issue share.The implied market capitalisation is approximately RM705.4 million upon listing. Sona Petroleum IPO is the largest SPAC in Malaysia based on the fundraising size.Sona Petroleum will set aside 90 per cent of the proceeds raised from the IPO to complete its Qualifying Acquisitions. The remaining of the IPO proceeds will be utilised for working capital within 36 months from the listing and listing expenses.Elaborating on the promising prospects of the oil and gas industry, Andreas said, “According to an Independent Market Research report, demand for oil and gas over the past 30 years have seen a significant increase, and this trend is expected to continue with escalating population growth and industrialisation in emerging economies expected to contribute to a 36 per cent growth in global total energy demand between 2011 and 2030.“Additionally, E&P capital expenditure is projected to surpass the US$670-billion mark in 2013 despite lower gas prices and the challenging macroeconomic situation in Europe and North America.”Currently, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd (CIMB) and RHB Investment Bank Bhd (RHB) are the Joint Principal Advisers, Joint Placement Agents and Joint Managing Underwriters for Sona Petroleum.CIMB and RHB also act as the Joint Underwriters together with Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd and MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd for the retail offering.